The race is on (Feb. 1, 2015)Editor’s note: Will Berry is one of the board of directors for the RussVegas Half Marathon and Relay. He will write a column about various topics relating to the half-marathon in the weeks leading up to the April 10-11 event. Why run? Could you imagine paying your hard earned money to endure the physical and mental challenge of training for and finishing a half-marathon, marathon or an even greater distance? There was a time when parents and t...

News flash: This could save a lifeCONWAY — Much to the chagrin of the U.S. Postal Service, there is a better, faster and cheaper way to get information to a large number of people at the same time. It is called email, and I use it all the time. Many of my readers also use it to email information to me and, while I can’t use all of it, occasionally I get something so good that I feel compelled to pass it along. What I received from a man by the name of Jim Duran is a fourth ind...

Stormy weather and politicsIt was refreshing to see meteorologists apologize for their dire — and wrong — predictions of an unprecedented snow storm that they had said would devastate the northeast. It was a big storm, but the northeast has seen lots of big snow storms before and will probably see lots of big snow storms again. That’s called winter. Unfortunately, we are not likely to hear any similar apologies from those who have been promoting “global warming” hysteri...

The faith factor (2016 edition)We are one year away from the Iowa caucuses and already several Republican presidential candidates are trying to secure an advantage by talking about their faith. Before announcing his non-candidacy last Friday, Mitt Romney had indicated if he ran for a third time he intended to be more “open” about his Mormon faith. Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, regularly invokes his Baptist faith. And now Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wiscons...

The power of personalityThis week marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Sir Winston Churchill, Britain’s prime minister during World War II. Churchill took up painting as a hobby in 1915, after the Gallipoli debacle, where 46,000 allied lives were lost over nine months of the campaign. He went on to paint more than 500 paintings during his lifetime. As wartime prime minister, he took a break from painting, focusing instead on the task at hand — winning the war, ...

Obama versus AmericaIn his recent trip to India, President Obama repeated a long-standing pattern of his — denigrating the United States to foreign audiences. He said he had been discriminated against because of his skin color in America, a country in which there is, even now, “terrible poverty.” Make no mistake about it, there is no society of human beings in which there are no rotten people. But for a President of the United States to be smearing America in a f...

Voters should select, not elect, judgesThe recent admission of bribery by former circuit judge Michael Maggio is an example of why Arkansas should consider changing the way it fills judicial offices — still relying on average citizens, but not by using elections. Maggio pleaded guilty Jan. 9 to a felony bribery charge and now probably is on his way to prison. He had reduced a jury verdict against a nursing home operator from $5.2 million to $1 million two days after receiving large...

Awful executive sessions billFrom what originally appeared to be an honorable attempt to improve the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, state Rep. Nate Bell, R-Mena, is now pushing a bill that would strike at the very foundation of the state’s model access law. Bell is sponsoring House Bill 1054, titled “An Act to Preserve the Integrity of Executive Sessions ...” If that’s what it would actually do, he would have strong support from Arkansas news organizations, which re...

Hutchinson shrinks 'no' caucus on MedicaidLITTLE ROCK — The “heck no” caucus on Arkansas’ Medicaid expansion is turning into a very lonely place. Winning over a coalition of supporters of Arkansas’ private option and lawmakers who were ushered into office on vows to kill it, Gov. Asa Hutchinson cleared a major hurdle in his plan to continue the program while looking at longer term changes. A larger fight may loom in the House, but the Republican governor is already showing an ability ...

Vestiges of rotten boroughsHow is it possible to have a president chosen by the United States Electoral College without his/her having a majority or even a plurality of the popular vote? The answer is that the U.S. still has vestiges of a “rotten borough” system. The borough was an administrative unit in England. The phrase “rotten borough” came from 18th century England when many people moved from the rural areas to the cities as a result of the industrial revolution. ...

New jobs and tax cutsLITTLE ROCK — It was a good week in and out of the Capitol for the people of Arkansas: Let’s start with the big jobs announcement at the end of the week. On Thursday, we welcomed three new technology firms and 140 new jobs to downtown Conway. These knowledge-based, big data jobs are a foundational part of the future of our economy. The arrival of these new technology companies to Arkansas is a tribute to the leadership in Conway, which has inv...

Significant tax cut measure passedToward the end of our third week of the Regular Session, we passed a significant tax cut measure. With a vote of 95-2, the House approved a bill to reduce the income tax for middle class Arkansans by 1 percent. This bill impacts those making between $21,000 and $75,000 a year. A family or individual making around $50,000 will see a savings of $300 a year on state taxes. This bill was amended to allow for a portion of previous cuts in the capit...

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State House of RepresentativesThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

When you are feeling downCONWAY — One of the great things about writing this column is that I get responses from so many delightful people. A while back I got an e-mail from a gentleman by the name of Glen Hobbs, who reads my column in the Bolivar Commercial published in Cleveland, Miss. In response to a column titled, “Just Color Me Square,” here is what he had to say. “I am from the ole school at 65 years of age, (thank God). As you pointed out, our generation of to...

Another snow jobThe network meteorologists barely had time to come up for air while “forecasting” the latest snowstorm non-disaster. Politicians, fearing what might happen to their approval numbers if a blizzard hit, went on TV to announce they were taking proactive measures. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio shut down tunnels, bridges, even the subway to prepare for the worst. Governors Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie announced road closings in New York and...

Private Option speechGov. Asa Hutchinson’s health care reform speech last Thursday was what the State of the Union address ought to be but rarely is – an accurate definition of a problem respecting both sides, followed by a solution that actually has a chance of being enacted. Hutchinson spoke last week at UAMS before an auditorium full of legislators, health care policymakers, and other interested listeners. Hutchinson started his speech with a history lesson. On...

Random thoughts on the passing sceneRandom thoughts on the passing scene: Who says President Obama doesn’t promote bipartisanship? His complicity in Iran’s moving toward nuclear bombs has alarmed some top Senate Democrats enough to get them to join Republicans in opposition to the Obama administration’s potentially suicidal foreign policy. Before the current measles outbreak, measles was once almost wiped out in the United States. But an article in a medical journal more than a ...

A look back at the first weekLITTLE ROCK — Last week started with the annual Right to Life March on Jan. 18. I attended my first march 28 years ago when I was a newcomer to politics. And I noticed that no other candidates or officeholders were present then. This past Sunday, it was a different scene. Our congressmen attended. Members of the Legislature attended. And our constitutional officers attended. It's evident that times have changed. Attitudes have changed. And mor...

Hutchinson walks fine lineLITTLE ROCK — Goodbye, private option. Hello, AsaCare. Calling on lawmakers to keep Arkansas’ compromise Medicaid expansion alive through 2016 as he eyes a longer term health care plan, Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson is trying to take ownership of an issue where he’s tried to tread carefully over the past two years. It’s an approach that sends him straight into the political minefield that he acknowledges has sharply divided his party. “The ph...

Community college proposalPresident Barack Obama proposed in his State of the Union address last week that two years of community college be free for responsible students across America. The reaction of some, predictable with anything this president advocates, is that Obama wants yet another giveaway program. Because Republicans now control both houses of Congress and are focused on the 2016 presidential election, nothing will come of the proposal. And yet it’s one tha...

Books you should have read alreadyNot that anyone wanted to know, but I’ve got opinions about things. Like it or not, I’ve got them. Last week, when the Seattle Seahawks came from behind to defeat the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship, I had plenty to say on the subject because the Packers have been my favorite sports team since junior high school. So I took it to Facebook, where one of my friends snarlingly replied, “Oh good, opinions about sports.” Imagine that. The ...